UAE Prepares For Mars Colonization By Building Domed Cities In The Desert

Elon Musk has not even sent rockets to Mars yet and the United Arab Emirates is already preparing for the eventual colonization of the red planet. The nation is looking to build giant, domed cities in the desert to emulate the conditions that colonists are likely to experience. With the sandy dunes and lifeless landscape, the region is a reasonably close representation of Mars.

The project is titled Mars Space City (MSC) and the UAE is planning to complete it in about a century, Popular Mechanics reports. The prospect of having an entire city intended to train colonists of what living on Mars will be like by 2117 certainly seems interesting, especially given that it would be right around this time that the first group of SpaceX colonists will likely arrive and establish a habitable environment.

Apparently, the city will be designed by architect Bjarke Ingels and will cost about $140 million to complete. That amount might seem small, but the city itself will only cover about 1.9 million square feet, which is quite a bit smaller than many huge urban areas. Even so, once completed, it will be the largest Mars simulation project in existence.

Now, it’s worth noting that the city itself will not be able to simulate precisely what humans can expect once they actually live on Mars. However, the larger point of the MSC is to inspire future generations to further explore what’s possible in science and technology, Futurism reports.

To that end, the city will also feature a museum, showcasing humanity’s greatest achievements in the field of space exploration. The tech luminaries of today might be working hard on actually turning humans into a multi-planet species, but there will still be a great need for a new generation of engineers, scientists, and visionaries.